Lincoln Land Community College becomes the 12th Illinois institution to utilize Higher One’s financial aid refund services. Using the company’s OneDisburse Refund Management system, the school will now be able to speed refund distributions to students while reducing the time-consuming and labor-intensive issuance of paper checks.

With Higher One’s OneDisburse Refund Management, students are given increased choice in how they receive their refunds including: direct deposit to the OneAccount, a no minimum balance, no monthly fee, FDIC-Insured checking account provided by Higher One, and an ACH transfer to a bank of the student’s choice.

For the college, this new process means less work during the distribution process. The institution simply provides Higher One a flat file of students receiving refunds and the amounts of each. LLCC then sends Higher One a wire for the total amount of the refund disbursement. In addition to the distribution process, Higher One markets the program to students, collects and protects student banking information, handles any returned payments, and fields any refund related customer service inquiries.

“We actually did consider [building] an internal system, but the more we heard about Higher One and all the bells and whistles the program offered, we decided to go with them,” said Karie Longhta, LLCC controller.